Filmmakers Making A Social Impact
[excerpt from an interview "filmmakers making a social impact: why & how filmmaker kendra williams of black & brown in the middle is helping to change our world” published on May 28, 2022 in authority magazine on medium]What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why.
Suck at the things you love. I have spent most of my life trying to avoid failure, only sticking with the things I had a natural ability to do. If I tried something once and wasn’t immediately successful, then I’d quit the very next day. I gave up music as soon as it got too uncomfortable; I won’t even tell you how many times I’ve started learning guitar then let it collect dust for months. Building Black & Brown In The Middle has been the first thing I’ve stumbled through in my adult life. I mean, I have really sucked at producing more days than I’ve been good at it, but I really love it. I keep falling and getting back up because I am committed to this love.
Nobody will care as much as you. When we were getting really close to releasing the pilot episode of our docuseries, I was feeling pretty alone. Everyone on the team had played their part beautifully, and I was working around the clock to coordinate all of the final logistics for our new website launch, our crowdfunding campaign, and promoting the pilot. I called my mom crying (not uncommon since starting B&BITM), and she explained that this was like having a baby. “When you announce your pregnancy, everyone’s excited and celebrating with you. You have a shower, people bring you gifts, and they fuss over you for months. Once you have the baby, it’s just you and the baby. You have to invite people in to celebrate the milestones as the baby grows up.” Having a baby isn’t an experience I’ve had, but I can admit that I’ve been the friend who shows up for the baby shower and dips until the 1st birthday party. Now I’m not afraid to send out birthday invites whenever I need my people to show up for Black & Brown In The Middle.
Learn to make quick, firm decisions. If you’re like me, then you love consensus and harmony on your team. I want everyone to be inspired by every decision and happy with the direction we take on a project, but that can really slow things down when we can’t come to an agreement. I’ve wasted a lot of time trying to facilitate unanimous decisions, and I can’t get that time back. If you’ve come together to discuss a decision more than once, and can’t reach consensus, then it’s probably time for you to make it on your own. At that point, you need to take all the data you have from your team and use it to make the best possible decision, then prepare to learn from any mistakes you make!
Ask for help before you need it. If you try to do it all on your own, you will reach a point where you’re so overwhelmed and burnt out that you don’t even have the energy to delegate anymore. Start delegating from the beginning, friend! I know, you want to figure everything out yourself before bringing anyone else in, but don’t. Even if it’s something as small as asking a friend or family member to send out postcards for you (thanks, Mom and Dad!), get in the habit of delegating tasks as early as possible so that you learn the art of letting go long before you’re desperate for help.
Not all kinfolk are finfolk. Don’t bother looking up “finfolk” because I am not talking about mermaids or sorcerers (Wikipedia is a wild place). I am talking about financial supporters — fin-folk. So many articles, mentors, coaches, and other founders say that the primary source of financial support would be friends and family. What they don’t tell you is that this is true for traditional founders. Don’t get me wrong — our community has definitely done so much to support monetarily and otherwise! It’s just a fact that founders from traditional backgrounds tend to have access to more friends and family with the ability to give more. For those of us who don’t have those connections, we get to be more creative about accessing the funds to build our businesses.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
It’s so easy to get caught up in our own needs and forget that every one of our actions has a reaction in the world. It is never only about me, and it is never only about you. We each have an obligation to consider how our lives will impact the world around us, even after we’re gone. The state of the world today is the legacy that generations of people before us left behind. Any frustrations that you and I might have about the environment, politics, or popular culture can be linked to their decisions. That’s why we need to be intentional about the decisions we make today, considering how they may alter the future of generations to come.
find the full 2022 interview on medium here.